Sunday, April 10, 2011

Ultra Music Festival 13; results of trial.

So Ultra Music Festival weekend sure was crazy, so insanely off the hook that I managed to injure myself haha, but more on that later. Ultra weekend was the last weekend of March. That Friday I managed to get off work relatively early at 3 pm from my cardiology rotation. I got ready to head out at 4 pm even though gates opened at that time. There was traffic pretty much the entire way there, and by 5 pm I was still stuck in freeway traffic, regretting the fact that I didn't just leave at 3 pm. When I finally get off the freeway, it's almost 6 pm. After turning onto Biscayne, I realized there was a Miami Heat game going on later that night as well! No wonder it seemed like everyone in Miami was in downtown. By the time I park and get to the festival entrance, it was past 6:30. When I get to lines, seeing the hoardes of people, I think to myself, "If it's like this every day of this weekend, it's going to be a long weekend." There were literally hundreds of people pushing and shoving towards the entrace; there was nothing resembling a line whatsoever. I didn't recall it being so disorganized last year. At least I didn't really get searched/patted down. Now if I didn't get patted down, imagine what snuck through? So after half an hour of waiting in line, I finally get in! I walked around for a bit and listened to Erasure at the Main Stage while waiting for a friend to show up. We convened about half an hour later, despite the spotty reception at festival grounds. A while later, some of his friends from near DC area showed up as well.

So while we walked around, I somehow got involved a shoving match with some random people and I ended up on the ground, suffering multiple abrasions. Just kidding haha...that's what I tell people because it sounds cooler. Actually, I didn't see where I was walking and it was quite dark when I misstepped down an inclined dirt hill several feet high. Now why did the city go and make a hill like that? Stupid me though. That was quite embarrassing. And I managed to sustain a calf strain as well since I stepped on air and hyperextended my calf. The lame part is I wasn't inebriated or anything of that sort. For real. Oh well, let's see if Aflac will give me any compensation for it. I was bloodied for rest of the evening and in pain. When Pendulum, Duran Duran, and Tiesto performed though, I didn't notice anything. Guess it was the adrenaline. I can't explain how awesome it was in words so here are pics and vids:

Man, what a first day/evening of Ultra, and that was only a few hours. I went off to bed at 3 AM after getting back to my place at 2 AM. Yea, getting through downtown traffic was a pain.

Some six hours later, I get up, eat some food and got ready for a second day of Ultra. I packed my camelbak with ice and some water and start to head out when my friend Eduin (who joined for the first day) calls me up telling me he managed to get in a car accident hours early. He's alright, but I basically had to pick him up. So I take a detour to swing by his place and we head out to Bicentennial Park. We get there around 1 in the afternoon, and to our surprise there was no line at the entrance and traffic wasn't bad at all. I guess most people were still asleep, wiped out from the day before. So we go through the entrance and at the security checkpoint, the guy doesn't really pat me down but pushes on my cargo pockets. Then he asks what's in my camelbak, which I responded was mostly ice. He wants me to open the cover, and of course much of the ice has melted by now so he wants me to pour out the water. I do reluctantly but after a few ounces I come upon ice and he ends up telling me to just go ahead after all that. This actually happens again the next day. What I don't understand is how they make a big deal out of water but yet allow drugs and other contraband to sneak through.

Anyhow, so we walk about, checking out all the tents and stages. First stop was Steve Aoki, who was awesome, and then Afrojack, who was awesome as well. Then we hung out at The Eco Village for some trance music. Halfway through I go checkout Simian Mobile Disco for a bit. When I return back to the Eco Village tent, my friend Eduin apparently starts talking to this girl there who was by herself. She ends up joining us as we went to watch Kaskade. My friend goes off to watch Skream!+Benga on his own and I told him we'd look for him later as we stayed for rest of Kaskade. Afterwards we weren't able to find the guy at Tower of Ultra haha. A while later, she and I went to catch Cut Copy at the Live Stage. Afterwards we still couldn't find Eduin so just we hung out at the Carl Cox & Friends stage while waiting for Deadmau5 to start. My 2nd go-around of Deadmau5 was alright compared to last year. At the end of the night, we went our separate ways but not before exchanging facebook profiles. Minutes after she already left, I realized I should have just gotten her number! So dumb of me. I ended up being angry at myself for the next few days, until I finally found her on facebook.

I actually wasn't too tired for Sunday morning but by evening I sure was. Sunday was pretty awesome as well; caught Cosmic Gate, Armin Van Buuren, Crystal Castles, David Guetta, Carl Cox, Miss Nine, just to name a few. I ran into a guy I know who was absolutely whacked out on something haha. The sad thing is he's still in high school. All I'm gonna say is just look at these photos: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2321025&id=6301014&l=deb9d3cbdb

Should be able to view them without logging on facebook. Overall, I only spent $8 the entire weekend and despite my little accident and all the secondhand smoke and weed (I actually got asked quite a few times if I was selling anything or if I wanted to buy anything. Two dudes actually wanted to buy sips of water from me haha) it was quite an experience. Took me nearly all week to recover though haha. Can't wait til next year. Hopefully I get more people to join next year. To update on my trial really quick. The verdict came in during the week of April 2nd and turns out it was a hung jury because one juror didn't believe the guy kidnapped me to rob me? Whiskey tango foxtrot did he go and kidnap me for? To hang out with me? Really friggin' stupid. So now I have to testify again at a later date. How lame. My dad thinks it must have been the black juror haha.